Can't answer about copy/paste an NeoVim, but I just switched from vim -> neovim this week, and do feel it's a bit snappier. I also switched from syntastic to ALE for syntax checking and that made a huge difference as well.
For copy/paste in the terminal and vim, I usually have vim in a tmux session, and that has a few helpers to work with system clipboards. Not perfect, but better than vanilla vim's copy/paste.
I was going to mention this same presentation, but you beat me to it. He does a wonderful job with the code, as well and keeping the material interesting, and he has a good sense of humor. I'm looking forward to the videos he's working on for Egghead.io.
Although it does seem to be very slow to respond, https://voat.co/ seemed to have stepped in as a replacement at the last big upheaval. They seem to constantly have troubles staying up though.
It's funny how just from the description - "toughest, ugliest" - I knew exactly what warplane it was. As a kid thirty years ago, I probably put together five different plastic models of the A-10 Warthog.